Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-03-07
The Joliet Prison.


tentiary is built in a massive and SUBJ
stantial manner, and, for beauty of
architecture, far outranks any similar
institution in the United States. The
cornerstone was laid in 1857, hut
the prison as a whole was not com
pleted until 1869, the total cost of
the buildings and grounds amount
ing to nearly s2,000,000. Through
the great prison the city of Joliet
has acquired worldwide notoriety
which she would never otherwise
have possessed. 1t is conducted on
modern and humane principles, but
life in the big pen is not bed of
roses, as all who have experienced it
can abundantly testify. The murder
er or burglar is kept constantly at
work during the day, with only a
short recess for meals, and when
night comes on he is locked i'm his
cell, to remain until daylight, which
brings with it the same mOnotonous
drudgery and surveillance. With l.
600 of the most daring thieves and
cut-throats that ever cursed a civil
lied country under their charge, it is
not presumed that prison officials
should exhibit much tenderness and
impress the condemned that they are
guests of the state instead of lot of
outlaws. Once in awhile there is a
prisoner who deserves pity and COM
passion, but the majority of the gang
at Joliet are vicious rather than un-
fortunate, many of them old-timers,
who have "gone over the road" time
and time again. Since 1888 nearly
10000 convicts have been confined
in Joliet prisOn-the receipts per
year now averaging between seven
and eight hundred new arrivals, fully
twenty-five per cent of them coming
from Chicago. The number of con-
victs who have been sentenced for
life-since Illinois became a state
is 164, only one of whom was a wo-
man.
The front view of the prison is
quite imposing. The main or center
building is the warden's house, which
contains the offices, the guards hall,
commissioners rooms, dining-rooms
and officers sleeping rooms, the
whole occupying four stories, the fifth
OF top story being utilized for the fe-
male prison.
On either side of the warden's
house extend the great dollhouse
wings, each three hundred feet long,
eivin0 the institution a frontage to-
wards the south of nearly one thous-
and feet. The cells are built in the
form of blocks-one in the center of
each wing, leaving a passage-way all
around them some twenty-five feet
wide. The cells are made solidly of
stone and iron, not a particle of
woodwork being used in their struc-
ture. Each cell is eight feet deep,
four and one-half feet wide, seven
feet high, and is arranged to hold two
men. A double iron bunk-one bed
above the other-stands at one side
of the cell, the beds are made of husk
mattresses, straw pillows, sheets and
heavy wooden blankets. The convict
kitchen is in large building in the
rear of the warden's house, which
building also contains the prison
chapel, the store-room, the bakery
and, at the north end, the prison
"solitary" and punishment cells. The
cooking is done in great kettles by
steam.
In the prison bakery a number of
convicts were kneading dough at a
bread-trough, larger than the body
of a lumber wagon. Other convicts
were putting the unbaked loaves into
pans ready for the oven. Fifteen
barrels of wheat flour are baked into
three-foot loaves each day.
"We bake from twenty-five hun
dred to three thousand pounds of
bread each day." explained Superin-
tendent Banner, of the kitchen; "as |
you see, it is white wheat bread
there is none more wholesome. We |
cook thousand pounds Of meat for |
a dinner, and thirty bushels of pota-
toes, and other articles in proper !
ton"
The convicts' bill of fare is varied |
to suit the seasons of the year; On
Monday the breakfast consists of |
bacon, gravy, bread and coffee all |
other days the breakfast Is composed
of hash, bread and coffee. The din
ners are made up of hominy, fresh
pork, Irish stew, cOrned beef and
cabbage, roast beef, potatoes and
gravy, ETC., each taking its place on
the bill of fare for certain days Of
the week. The supper rations con-
sist simply of bread and coffee with
sometimes bit Of molasses or but
ter. Two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds of beef, one hundred and fif-
ty thousand pounds of pork, ten
thousand bushels of potatoes, foHr
thousand barrels of -four, ten thous-
and pounds Of coffee, twenty-five
thousand pounds Of bacon and eight
thousand pounds of butter disappear
down the throats OF the sixteen bun.
dred conyicts every year.
Out Of q total OF sixteen hundred
conyicts there are hardly more than
half dozen sick in the prison hos